


Reading In

by wynnebat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bookstores, HP: EWE, M/M, Post-Book(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 19:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10315805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: Former minister of magic Kingsley Shaklebolt opens a bookshop across the street from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a comment-fic [prompt](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/794107.html?thread=102201339#t102201339) by megan_moonlight.

It's all over the papers. _Opening weekend of Shaklebolt Books! Daughter of Gilderoy Lockhart gives a talk at Shaklebolt Books! Boycott on Shaklebolt Books by Flourish-a-Book Book Club fails!_ Impossible to miss in real life as it is in print, it's as though the bookshop has a daily war with the joke shop across from it for the most eye-catching window display. This week, there's a panel of The Butterfly Book of Magical Butterflies books. Percy stands outside of the shop for long enough that he notices one of them somehow escape the containment charms. He's no great Quidditch player, but he manages to catch it before it gets any further down the street. Armed with an excuse that he might not even need, Percy enters the bookshop.

He walks in on the tail end of the interview that Kingsley is giving, half-flirtily, to Rita Skeeter. "—of course, it was my duty as a British citizen. I couldn't just let Flourish & Blotts monopolize the book industry any longer. You should see how much the overcharge for Hogwarts textbooks. It's a travesty." He's leaning in, and doing that thing with his eyes, and Percy's pretty sure that if Kingsley hadn't had a great many other qualifications, he could've gotten the minister of magic job on that gesture alone.

Rita looks fluttery despite herself. It's a look Percy hasn't seen in a while; the new minister definitely doesn't inspire it in her. Then she turns around and she's all business again. "Isn't that Percy Weasley? Are you here on ministry business?"

"Just browsing books on my personal time," Percy says with a smile he practiced in the mirror for months when he was starting out at the ministry. No tightness, no awkwardness, no that-uptight-Weasley-kid-whatsisname. "If you have the time, I'd love to tell you about it."

Rita's known him far too long to trust him. "Cauldron bottoms?"

"This year's budget, it's just been released in book form and can be requested from the ministry by owl for five knuts or one can come to the ministry library to view it for free. I believe that every citizen has the privilege to stay informed about—"

"I think I've asked all the questions I needed to today," Rita quickly says. "Good day, Kingsley, Percy. You'll see my article in next week's Prophet."

It's good, because after a couple minutes of talking even will Percy run out of bullshit press material. He turns to watch her walk out the door, because one never quite knows with Rita Skeeter.

"I'm so glad I'm not obligated to care about any of that shit anymore," Kingsley sighs. But he obviously cares at least a little, because Percy notices him cast a privacy charm around them. It wouldn't do for the former minister to be badmouthing the ministry quite like that, though Kingsley has said some things against his successor. Now that Rita's gone, Kingsley's expression is more open in a way that pulls on Percy more than he'd expected. It's been a while. "Come have tea with me in the back room?"

"You're doing a good job at this asking instead of ordering thing now that you're not minister," Percy says, amused. Although, when Kingsley had barked out orders left and right months ago, Percy had been perfectly content to casually ignore the stupid ones and the ones made out of stress. "Do you have someone to deal with—" he waves his hand at the people around them. Some have left, obviously only intrigued by the interview, but there are still quite a lot browsing the shelves "—that?"

"Are you besmirching my customers?"

"I'm saying I'd rather deal with Edwards—" who still doesn't believe in calculator charms, the bastard, apparently simply believing in making more work for other people "—than work directly with the public."

"It's not bad. Twenty years in the ministry and you really do see all the stupidity humanity has to offer. There's not much more I can be surprised by. And yes, I've got someone at the counter. You don't need to worry over my shop; I think I monopolized your worry for long enough." It's said like a joke, but Kingsley looks a bit too serious as he says the words.

"The only person choosing how I spend my time is me," Percy tells him firmly.

Being in a bookshop for too long must've left Kingsley with way too much time to think. Percy hopes Kingsley's shop assistant knows to kick him out several times a day for some fresh air, otherwise he's liable to just stay and overwork and overthink himself right into St. Mungo's.

No matter what Kingsley says, he always cares too much about his work.

Eight years ago, when they'd brought up the idea of him becoming interim minister, Kingsley had warned the Order, "I'm going to be in at noon and out at five." He hadn't wanted to do it, but Kingsley was one of the few Order members suitable for the job. And then after a couple months, he'd made a formal run for minister, saying the job needed doing, and it might as well be him. The ministry had been a mess, ransacked completely by Voldemort's regime, down to the never-ending fires burning in the Hall of Records.

They'd known each other back then, in the way Order members who worked at the ministry did, with hushed and terrified words in break rooms binding them together, so Percy had been roped into being Kingsley's right hand, the senior undersecretary of the post-Voldemort world. It had been meant to only be been a temporary thing, a favor to an Oder member to have his back and help with getting the ministry back on its feet. And then the interim period had finished and Kingsley began working on his campaign, and Percy had looked around and thought, _there's still so much left to do._

It's better now; Percy attributes it mostly to the work of the people who'd mostly ate, slept, and breathed in the stale ministry air for the two years following the final battle. Eight years after the war, it's so much better, but once a month Percy still comes across reminders of Voldemort's reign.

Year after year, for the entirety of Kingsley's term in office, Percy stayed. He'd stayed even after Kingsley left and Kingsley's successor came in, though four months in, he wasn't sure why. The reason he'd been staying had gone on to a job that doesn't have room for Percy.

Kingsley says nothing for a long moment, but eventually a half smile finds its way to his face. "You should choose to spend some more of your time here. I haven't seen you since my farewell party." He leads Percy into the back room, which holds a desk, a couple chairs, and what looks like a couple thousand books. They're in stacks, bookshelves, boxes, and just lying around.

Percy itches to organize them. "New shipment?" It reminds him of something. He takes the butterfly book out of his pocket and gives it to Kingsley. "You need to strengthen your wards. These are getting out."

Kingsley places it between two old grimoires. "Thanks. And no, this is the usual state of things. I've got a bunch of people who donate their family's old books to me, but most of them are at least two decades old, or older, and they've all got to be checked to make sure there's no dark shit in there. It's a lot of work, but I like it." He fusses around with the tea things before floating a cup towards Percy.

Percy takes a chair meant for visitors, but instead of sitting behind the desk, Kingsley takes one of the boxes next to Percy. It's different; it's nice. Percy's seen Kingsley behind a desk thousands of times, but this is new.

Still, "No plans on returning to the ministry?"

"None," Kingsley says. "Is that why you're here? Because I did my job, but I wasn't planning on being a bureaucrat for life. And after all the shit in the war, I couldn't go back to the Auror department. I'm happier here."

"I know," Percy acknowledges. "You look good. Better than you did in the office. I guess I just… miss how things were. I hate my new boss."

"That bad?"

"He's not a secret Death Eater," Percy acknowledges. "Or Umbridge. He could be worse, I suppose. But he's there because he wants the power and prestige of the ministry seat and is completely incompetent at the job. And he's got scandals so wide you could throw five mistresses through. Hawthorne's strings are unraveling right in front of my eyes and it's taking all I have to simply stave off his looming public ruin. I figure he's got a month until he goes out in a pyre of Daily Prophet headlines."

"There's a reason you stayed, isn't there?"

"I liked the job. I just didn't realize I'd mind who I was reporting to so much." _I didn't want to follow my old boss like a puppy for the rest of my life,_ Percy doesn't say. So he'd stayed to prove a point, and after a couple months, the point was that he could live without Kingsley at his side, but it was a shit way to live. The problem was, the alternative wasn't any better. He wanted too much to be able to easily work with Kingsley again.

"I'm not sure how much you'd like it here, but there's always a place for you here," Kingsley says, raising an eyebrow.

Percy snorts softly, shaking his head. "If I were to leave, I'd need a different position. You're too easy to work with, Kingsley. If I started working for you, I'd just never leave, and I still have a career to think about."

"What does Audrey think about that?

Percy shrugs, glancing down at his cup. "She left me for someone who wants to get married sometime this decade." And, maybe, someone who isn't so obsessed with his boss. Audrey had never suspected there had been anything deeper than simple loyalty there, but it would've probably hurt her less if he'd just told her the truth. It would've been easier for her to accept he'd fallen for someone else, rather than just caring about work more than her.

"Ouch."

"I deserved it. I thought I could have it all, you know? But my 'all' was ninety percent work and that wasn't something she'd ever been about. Fuck, I don't know. What exactly am I supposed to do with myself now?"

"You could run for minister yourself."

"Thank you for your belief in me, but I've realized I'd really like to be the one pulling the strings instead."

"So pull someone else's strings. Transfer to another department, see if the Unspeakables are hiring, try out working in business instead. You've got a letter of recommendation from the former minister in your pocket, and the current one, for however long Hawthorne's word will still be good. You could go anywhere. And in between—take a break. If I know you, and I do, you've spent as little as possible of all that overtime pay since I've known you. Use it now to give yourself time to figure things out."

Percy imagines just that: quitting, taking a bag of money out of his Gringotts vault, and going off to lie on an island beach for a month. He'd be bored out of his mind in days. But what else is left?

"I could take George up on going through his business' finance records," Percy muses. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is expanding to a third location, this one overseas in the town that Ilvermorny is located in, and there's a lot of preparation to do before it can be done. "It could be a working holiday of sorts."

"And you could actually visit me more than once a four months," Kingsley adds.

Percy looks at him with some surprise. "I didn't realize you wanted me to come by."

They'd seen each other nearly every day for eight years. He'd thought—well, he'd thought maybe Kingsley needed a break from things. From him. He knows better than anyone that his personality isn't well-suited for long-term friendship; the only friend he's managed to keep into adulthood is Oliver Wood, and that's mostly because their friendship consists of owling each other back and forth now that Oliver spends most of his time out of the country.

"Merlin, Percy, you worked for me for eight years, but you also became my friend. Of course I wanted you here."

"I didn't think. Well. It seems I was mistaken."

"I want you around," Kingsley repeats for some reason, his voice quieter. "I enjoyed you pulling my strings."

"Good," Percy coughs out, because there's no way Kingsley meant what he'd for a second thought he'd meant. "Although, until I do my duty and make sure Hawthorne's position is stable enough for me to leave, I'll still be working around the clock to keep Hawthorne in office, so I'll have utterly no time to be around. But I appreciate the sentiment."

Kingsley stares at him for a long moment. "Fuck it. Do you have time in the evenings after work?"

"I mostly just collapse straight into bed," Percy admits. Or onto the couch in his office. He has five changes of robes in that office now that no one really cares whether he goes home in the evenings.

"If it's something you'd be interested in, I'm offering you mine."

And that, well. That's all too clear, although clearly Percy's gone insane, or there's something stronger than tea in his teacup. "Excuse me?"

"I never said anything back when you were working for me; there never seemed any point. In the beginning, it was inappropriate and getting the country back together was more important. And then you were taken, and I thought that was that."

Percy stares at him. "Good Merlin, why?"

Kingsley's expression pinches. "If I've made you uncomfortable, I'm—"

"No, why are you telling me now instead of three years ago? 2003 would've been a much better year if we'd had some stress relief at the office." Percy's still pretty sure he's gone insane, but this insanity is working for him. "You mean it?"

"I do."

"Then I really hope you have a good mattress. I'm as picky with mattresses as I am with cauldron bottoms."

With a huff of laughter, Kingsley abandons his teacup to take Percy's face in his hands instead.

Percy's never been good at facing his future without a plan, but he and Kingsley, they're a good team. They'll figure it out.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Complete; no sequel planned.


End file.
